Western Field Ornithologists September 2020 Newsletter
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Western Field Ornithologists September 2020 Newsletter Black Skimmers, Marbled Godwits, and Forster’s Terns. Imperial Beach, San Diego County. 3 September 2009. Photo by Thomas A. Blackman. Christopher Swarth, Newsletter Editor http://westernfieldornithologists.org/ What’s Inside…. Farewell from President Kurt Leuschner Welcome to New Board Members Alan Craig Remembers the Early Days of WFO Jon and Kimball on Bird Taxonomy and the NACC Western Regional Bird Highlights by Paul Lehman Steve Howell: A Big Year by Foot in Town Over-eager Nuthatches and Willing Sapsuckers Meet the WFO Board Members Awards and new WFO Leadership Kimball’s Life and Covid-time in a New Home Book reviews Student Research Field Notes and Art Announcements and News Kurt Leuschner’s President’s Farewell These past two years have been an interesting time to be the President of Western Field Ornithologists. We had one of our most successful conferences in Albuquerque, and just before the lockdown we completed a very memorable WFO field trip to Tasmania. We accomplished a lot together, and I look forward to assisting with future planning when the world opens up again – and it will! While we may not know exactly what lies ahead, we certainly won’t take anything for granted. We’re in the midst of a worldwide discourse about the serious impacts of social injustice. How the ornithological community can help improve the experiences of minorities in field ornithology continues to be on our minds as we move forward into 2021. Our new WFO Diversity and Inclusivity subcommittee has met two times already, and we will continue to discover and to implement ways to bring more under- represented groups into the world of birds. We hope that you will join us in this endeavor. We have a conference planned for 25-29 August 2021 in Reno, Nevada when we can celebrate our 50th anniversary one year late! As the current situation improves, watch for other opportunities to get in the field with WFO in email announcements, newsletters, and on our recently refurbished website. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to serve you as President. I thank you all for this incredible opportunity as I slip into my new role as Past-President and Chair of the Finance Committee. Please continue to contact me anytime at [email protected] Kurt M. Leuschner, Past-President, Western Field Ornithologists Welcome New WFO Board Members! At the September board meeting, conducted by Zoom, the board voted on a slate of four board members. A few days later the membership voted by email and affirmed this slate. Wendy Beers was elected for a 2nd three-year term. In addition, three new members were elected to the board: Susan Smith Gilliland, Andrew Mauro, and Kristie Nelson. We congratulate them all and look forward to their energy and ideas! Susan Gilliland, Ph.D., has extensive experience in nursing and public health research. She has spent many years developing and guiding youth birding programs, principally for Pasadena Audubon, a group that has donated significantly to the WFO Student Programs Committee. She and others have recently established LAB (Los Angeles Birders) and LAB-S (Los Angeles Birders - Students) and has been part of our Student Programs Committee. Susan lives in Pasadena, California. Andrew Mauro has a degree in English Literature, and an MBA in Marketing. His background is market research and he was owner and president of a wholesale greenhouse cut-flower nursery. He’s been president of San Diego Field Ornithologists and he assisted in the San Diego bird and plant atlases. He has organized fund-raising for numerous conservation projects, including the purchase of land for sanctuaries. Recently he moved north from San Diego County to Gig Harbor, Washington, where it turns out that his neighbor is Joyce Meyer, a previous WFO Board member. Kristie Nelson has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Humboldt State University. She’s been closely associated with Point Blue Conservation Science for well over a decade as a Field Biologist, much of that time spent on the Farallon Islands. She’s also a biologist for the Mono Lake Committee and has done much to promote and manage conservation projects at Mono Lake. She has served many years on both the California Bird Records Committee and the ABA Checklist Committee. She has authored numerous publications on birds and other fauna. Kristie lives with her husband on a farm/ranch just north of Lee Vining, California. 1 Alan Craig on the Early Days of WFO Alan Craig was a founder in 1970 of California Field Ornithologists (later to become Western Field Ornithologists) and he was the first editor of the organization’s journal California Birds (later, renamed Western Birds). In 1987, WFO instituted the Alan M. Craig Award, to be given on an irregular basis for “exceptional service, leadership and dedication to WFO over a sustained period of time.” The award honors Alan’s dedication and commitment to WFO and in 1987 he became the first recipient of this award. Since then, only four other WFO members have received the Craig Award. These notes are based on a phone interview with Alan that took place in May 2020. Alan emphasized that there were many individuals in the early days of WFO who made our organization a success: “I was just one of six founders of CFO/WFO, and all six of us were editors of the 3 years of California Birds. Guy McCaskie was the driving force that started and kept the organization going. Pierre Devillers played a major role for the 3+ years that he was in San Diego (getting his PhD at LaJolla) both in setting high standards for the journal, for the bird records committee, and for the organization, as well as helping to write the California Checklist, etc. Ginger Johnson was key, as were Guy McCaskie and Cliff Lyons. Ginger, after 50 years, is still serving as Graphic Manager! “ Alan recalled how they would stuff issues of California Birds into mailing envelopes and send them off to members in the mail. Work in those days was done with a typewriter. Lots of typing and retyping of manuscripts. Editorial comments were made by pencil in the margins of a manuscript. “Laurie Binford was a big help in getting an Editorial Board established with representatives from most western states and provinces to solicit and review manuscripts. Laurie was a very good editor/reviewer.” Alan in Australia, 1991 Laurie had told Alan, “You always send me the worst manuscripts to edit.” After three years of California Birds it became apparent that a larger area of coverage was needed to attract enough manuscripts, and that the journal needed only one editor and not six. “So I became it until someone more qualified could be found.” Alan went on to explain…”In the 1970s the founders felt that California Birds filled a critical niche. The Condor, Auk, and Wilson Bulletin were becoming more and more technical and these journals were not publishing many articles on population status, occurrence, range expansions, or regional and state 2 records. At this time in the 1970s, field ornithologists were making many discoveries about migration patterns, vagrants and rarities, field marks for difficult-to-identify species, and new occurrence records in the west. A new journal was needed to publish these articles and records, and California Birds soon occupied this niche that had been left vacant by the other journals. The founders wanted California Birds (and later, Western Birds), to be a solid, factually-correct journal but at the same time, not to become too technical. Experts in California and later in other western states were contacted and asked to submit papers for the journal. In the beginning it was not easy getting manuscripts. Laurie Binford was a big help in getting researchers to submit manuscripts to the journal.” Alan commented that even in the early 1970s there were a lot of good birders in San Diego, Los Angeles, and in the Bay Area. Also, as well as in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. Many became members of WFO and others began to submit articles to the journal. Joseph R. Jehl, Jr. was a professional (now retired) with considerable experience both writing and reviewing papers for major ornithology journals. At that time Joe was Curator of Birds at San Diego Natural History Museum. I had no previous experience editing anything and Joe was a great help to me particularly in matters of grammar and punctuation, including what was customary usage in both American and British bird journals. One example of the invaluable lessons he taught was the myriad of details one needs to examine upon receipt of the printer’s blue line, the proof of an entire issue. He shared his knowledge with the other five of us who co-edited the first three years of what was then California Birds. Gradually there developed a sense among CFO that the group should expand beyond the boundaries of California. There was resistance by some members to change from CFO to WFO. Although some wanted to keep the group California-centered, most wanted to broaden to all of western North America. At a meeting at Ted Chandik’s house in Palo Alto the CFO leaders decided to rename the organization the Western Field Ornithologists. Expenses were low in early days. Ginger Johnson and Jean Craig (now Jean Terschuren, another of the six founders/editors) visited many printers and found a good, reasonably-priced, off-set printing company in National City and they printed the journal for many years using this printing technique.